zen

TO say that Zen is an “embodied practice“is to say that Zen can’t be found in words on the page, or in the mind that creates the ideas behind those words. But we have to start somewhere, and words are what we have. When I study the talks in Zen Mind,

DHARMA REALM BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY 4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Bud

Quarantine life got you on edge? Experience the tranquility of a Zen garden in Kyoto without dealing with travel and, you know, people. Zen Fox Studio rock gardens, made in West Lafayette by artist Sarah Vrabely, come in a variety of sizes and styles

I WAS RAISED IN YORK County, Pennsylvania. My extended family are ethnically Pennsylvania Dutch, and I was steeped in that culture as a child. My relatives were mostly farmers and factory laborers. I attended the University of Texas, focusing on anth

4300 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 665-4300, Fax: (323) 665-4404, service@againstthestream.org, www.againstthestream.org • Founded by Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx, Against The Stream has two centers in Los Angeles and Santa Monica o

IN BERKELEY DURING the sixties, “shacking up” was one of the most common forms of dating. Getting married was considered old-fashioned—and not in a good way. My future husband and I were living together as we finished our undergraduate degrees in 196

I was born in 1947 in a place that doesn’t exist anymore: the Panama Canal Zone. It was an American possession at the time and my father was stationed there. Growing up as a navy brat, I lived many places, and I’ve continued to move around a lot as a

Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight University of Hawai‘i Press 2,256 pages (3 volumes); $90 Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight is Paul Swanson’s English translation of the Mohe zhiguan (Jpn., Maka shikan; literally, “great calming and insight”), a massive comp

The second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna had it out for anyone addicted to logic. He recognized logic’s importance in the context of philosophical discourse but observed that many of his non-Buddhist contemporaries wrongly believed in

PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE is a lineage holder in the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as one of the few Westerners recognized and enthroned as a tulku. She founded the nonprofit organization Ngakpa International, residential medi

Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo’s Exposition of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra (Kumgang Sammaegyong Non) translated by Robert E. Buswell Jr. University of Hawaii Press, 2018 438 pages; $32.00 IMAGINE a world where dictionaries did not exist and bo

ZENJU EARTHLYN MANUEL is a Soto Zen priest and founder of Still Breathing Zen Sangha. She is the author of Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging as well as The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender. S

Still from the 2012 film adaptation of On The Road Dad gave me a copy of On the Road for Christmas when I was sixteen. At thirteen it had been The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, then The Catcher in the Rye the year after that. In our house the

On the Bowery in the '80s, Richard Avedon protege Drew Carolan captured the mien of a subculture centered around mid-afternoon expressions of anger and community. The hardcore kids ain't kids no more.

I have just set up camp on a rock ledge when all hell breaks loose. A violent windstorm suddenly sweeps out of the Panhandle, shaking my tent like an earthquake, and me with it. I step out to check the ropes anchoring the tent and blowing sand fills

4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Buddhist tradition. 3436 Divisadero

In Conversation with Joseph Goldstein By Gail Stark Wisdom Publications 2020; 256 pp., $18.95 (paper) Joseph Goldstein is a key founder of the Insight Meditation movement in the West; Gail Stark, a businesswoman, has been his friend and student for m